


Kid-Quisition

by CommonEvilMastermind



Series: Kid-Quisition [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Kid Fic, Kid Inquisitor, Kid POV, Kid-quisition, Kidquisitor, Varian the Lonely Dragon, dad!solas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 03:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5274257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommonEvilMastermind/pseuds/CommonEvilMastermind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the Inquisitor was a kid? It wouldn't be called The Inquisition, it'd be the deadly babysitter squad.</p><p>A collection of short fanfics about coffeependulum's wonderful Kidquisitor, Varian the Lonely Dragon.</p><p>Edit 11/27: Changed from a fic with chapters to a series of drabbles. I didn't mean to imply I actually have a plot or know where I'm going, I'm just interested in sketching out the life of the smol Inquisitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kid-Quisition

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Kidquisitor](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/157325) by Coffeependulum via Tumblr. 



But Varian was really, really _hungry._

He was always hungry. His belly was all loud and growling. Then sometimes it got quiet and he just felt all wobbly. Like he was jelly. Mmm. Jelly.

There was jelly in the building, he bet. Lots of jelly. And jam. And bread! Wolves didn’t have bread. He loved his family but they needed more bread. Warm bread with crusty outside and soft inside and not scavenged from the trash heap.

Or scavenged from a _good_ trash heap. Yeah.

With jelly.

Varian found a door with a lot of people. He tried a quiet door first, but he was little. The door was too heavy. So he found a door with people and walked through. One soldier stopped and gave him a look.

“And where are you off to, small one?” He knelt down. He had a nice smile. Varian smiled back, brushing his hair out of his eyes. Grown-ups liked it when you smiled.

“Gonna find my momma!” he grinned. “Momma’s in the kitchen!” It wasn’t true, but grown-ups also liked it when you lied.

Sure enough, the soldier patted him on the head. “Go find your momma, and stay out of the way. There are big people afoot.” The soldier stood. Varian smiled again and waved, trotting off.

He thought about what the soldier said. Big people afoot? All people were big. They weren’t feet, though.

That soldier must have been kind of silly.

The kitchen, he thought, would be down. Kitchens were usually down. He couldn’t find down, though, only up. Maybe the kitchen was up? He hurried along. Grown-ups liked it when you hurried. If you stopped, they thought you were lost. Then they tried to help.

Varian didn’t want them to help. Varian was just hungry.

Except maybe he would like a little help because he was very lost. There were hallways and corridors going every direction, but no people anymore. That wasn’t as good. There were always lots of people near the kitchen. He tried to be like his family, lifting his nose and trying to smell. He loved the smell of bread. But he wasn’t a wolf, he was a boy. The only thing he could smell was dust.

He sneezed. It was weird dust. Sharp dust. His footsteps got lost in the deep carpets. The lanterns were set high on the walls, and they made his shadow dance.

Varian stopped to scowl at it. Shadows shouldn’t dance.

“Someone! Help me!” That was a voice! A voice crying for help! Varian looked around wildly and sped off on his short little legs. “Someone! Help me!”

It was coming from behind a door. The door was so big! Varian pushed against it and pushed and pushed. It started to swing. He dug in his heels and pushed and it opened with a bang!

“Stop it!” Varian shouted as he burst into the room. There was a lady, floating in the air. She looked so scared. And a something, like a shadow come alive. The Something looked at him and snarled. Varian yelled. Its face! The Something had an awful face!

The old lady thrashed and a ball fell on the ground. It rolled towards Varian. It was shiny, glowing. He scrabbled on the deep carpet and reached for it, grabbing-

Varian screamed.

He screamed and he screamed and he screamed and it didn’t stop, the hurt didn’t stop. It was everything, white and green and burning, burning through all of his bones and it didn’t _stop_ , he was falling-

falling-

Falling should hurt at the end. Maybe it did. There was too much hurt to notice. But there was someone tugging at him, picking him up, and he was on his feet and he was running, running, running as fast as he could. He looked behind him and screamed again because the shadows were chittering, crawling, racing towards him and he ran even faster. Then the only way was up. He started climbing.

Varian was good at climbing. The shadows were too.

Up ahead, there was a lady. She was glowing, reaching. She wasn’t a shadow. He climbed and climbed and reached up to her. She grabbed him and _threw_ him and he was falling-

Everything went quiet.

Varian liked it.

Except then he woke up.

Varian didn’t like waking up. He was screaming. His arm was sparking and burning, glowing. His hand was-

His hand was-

The door crashed open and two people came in. One looked scary. One had a hood. Scary said, “Hush.” She tried to smile like she was kind. Her eyes had shadows under them.

Varian scrambled out from under the covers. He was in a bed, then he was on the floor and running to the door. The woman in the hood caught him.

“It’s okay,” she lied. When grown-ups said that, they lied. “I’m Leliana. We found you at the Conclave. What’s your name?”

“Let me go!” Varian howled. She didn’t. He bit her.

The Hood Lady dropped him with a curse. Varian tried to run away, but he landed wrong. His ankle yelled under him. He yelled too.

“OW OW OW OW OW!” He wailed. There was thunder outside. Then there was thunder in his hand. “OW OW OW OW OWWWWWW!” He was crying, big gloppy tears, but his family wasn’t there to lick them away, wasn’t there to nudge him and cuddle him and bring him raw nug to eat.

Scary picked him up, and he screamed into a shoulder covered in metal. “I know it hurts,” she said grimly. “I know. Let me take you to somebody who can make it better.”

The burning faded a little. Varian moved his head until he could nuzzle into the curve of Scary’s neck. Her arms were warm and strong around him. He sniffled. Her neck was gloopy from his crying.

“What’s your name?” Scary asked softly. She held him like she knew what she was doing, one arm supporting his butt, balancing him on her hip.

“V-varian,” he gulped.

“Varian, my name is Cassandra. I know you’re scared. We’re going to take care of you.”

Varian was going to protest – he was a big kid with a family! He was a big, scary wolf! But the thunder boomed in the sky, and then it boomed in his hand, up his arm. He shrieked. Scary Cassandra held him tightly, then moved him to the other hip and rubbed her ear.

“I will take him to Solas,” Scary Cassandra said.

The Hood Lady didn’t like that. “That seems unwise. The Breach-“

“The Breach will kill him if we don’t get it stabilized.” Scary Cassandra snapped. “And to do that, we need Solas. Now that Varian is awake, we must bring them together. Solas is headed to the forward camp.”

“But-“ The Hood Lady screwed her face up, then nodded. “I will go ahead of you to clear the way.” She swept out of the room, obviously unhappy. Scary Cassandra sighed. She was unhappy too.

“Am I really going to die?” Varian wondered. That sounded like it would hurt a lot.

“We all die eventually,” Scary Cassandra sighed. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that does not happen today.”

Varian wiggled his nose, thinking. “Okay,” he agreed.

“Okay?” Scary Cassandra asked, shifting him in her arms.

“Yeah, okay.” Varian nodded. “Down?.” She set him on the ground and he reached up to grab her hand. She was wearing metal and leather gloves. “Ohhh,” he breathed. “Pretty.”

“I’m glad they meet your approval,” Cassandra said wryly. Her hand was strong. The leather was warm. Maybe she wasn’t so scary.

She started walking slowly and he trotted along at her side. The hallway didn’t have any people in it. Then they went down some stairs, and there were lots of people. They were wearing big white dresses. They all looked worried. Some were saying things, little words that flickered at the corner of his memory.

Varian decided he liked the words.

Cassandra held his hand tightly as they went outside. He looked up. The sky was wrong. It was green and glowing, like his hand. He looked at it, looked through it. His head started spinning.

“We call it the Breach.” Cassandra knelt down in front of him. Her eyes were rich and brown, like the trees of his forest. He liked looking at her eyes. They were better than the Wrong in the sky. “It showed up after the Conclave. You were the only survivor. Do you remember what happened?”

Varian tilted his head, thinking. “I was hungry?” he guessed. Then the Wrong cracked like thunder and it was in his hand and he screamed. Cassandra picked him up and started walking, every line of her scared and furious.

The thunder in his hand went away. He curled into her shoulder. The metal was uncomfortable. “Down!” he demanded.

Cassandra tried to argue, but he wiggled until she put him on the ground. They walked through the camp together. There were a lot of people. They all looked at him. One man was very angry, with tears running down his cheeks. Varian stuck his tongue out at him. The man looked shocked.

Varian and Cassandra kept walking.

“Where is your mother, Varian?” Cassandra asked when they were away from the people.

“In the ground,” he said simply.

“And your father?” Her voice was softer.

Varian shrugged. He concentrated on the path in front of him. They were going over a bridge. Cassandra squeezed his hand.

Then there was a blast from the sky, and the bridge wasn’t under his feet anymore. Cassandra was. Varian blinked, looking up – the bridge had broke. They had fallen a long way, but Cassandra caught him.

Then he heard something awful.

It was a sound that wasn’t a sound, a keen hissing in his ears. He looked around. The snow started bubbling black and green. Cassandra said a bad word and scrambled up, dragging out her sword. It was a big sword.

“Stay behind me!” she yelled. Varian gulped. There were shadows coming out of the bubbling ground, shadows with claws and teeth and eyes that burned. He clung to Cassandra’s leg, which made her stumble. Then he stopped clinging, just stayed behind her as she swung the sword.

The shadows hated the sword! Varian whooped in joy.

There was a not-a-sound behind him. He spun. The ground was bubbling by his feet – another shadow! Cassandra and her sword were far away!

Varian was so scared. He would be brave like Cassandra. Cassandra wasn’t scared. That made him mad – why was he so scared, when he could be brave? Stupid shadows! He wasn’t scared! He shouted a bad word at the shadow. It hissed. That made him even madder. Stupid shadow! He was a wolf! The shadow should be scared! He yelled as the shadow reached down to him, and his hand – not _that_ hand, the other one, got really hot and tingly and shot out a little fireball! It hit the shadow right in the face, pow! Wham!

Then Cassandra was there, hitting the shadow with her big sword. Varian cheered. They did it! Cassandra was great! He was great! They could beat all the shadows!

Cassandra knelt down in front of him. She was covered in shadow-goop. “Are you alright?”

“Did you see that, did you see!” Varian was jumping, he was so happy. “I threw a fireball right at it, WHAM, right inna face! Wow! It’s like, it’s like, it’s like I’m a dragon! Yeah! And I hit the shadows right inna face, WHAM! POW! YEAH!”

Cassandra put her head in her hand. Varian poked her cheek. “I like your big sword,” he told her.

“Thank you,” she said. Her voice sounded funny. She looked up. “Come, Varian. We have a long way to go. And if we encounter any more shadows, I would please ask you to hide.”

“Dragons don’t hide,” he told her scornfully. “I’m a dragon!”

“Maker preserve us,” Cassandra said, standing. “Let’s go.”

“’kay,” Varian agreed. He trotted along beside her. She put her shield on her back so he could hold her hand.

They kept walking. There were more shadows. Cassandra got most of them – well, all of them. He did hit one in the face again, but that was with a rock. Dragons didn’t throw rocks. Did they? Dragons were big, they could carry big rocks. Maybe they could carry rocks up and drop them to squish people.

Varian was explaining this to Cassandra when they heard shouting. There was that not-sound again, only different, louder. It sounded wrong. Like it was broken. “It’s a rift,” Cassandra said grimly. “Varian, stay here.” She left him in the snow and ran towards the broken sound.

Varian ran right behind her. The broken sound was the air. Someone had cut it apart, and it was hurting! It made his hand ache – _that_ hand. Shadows kept coming out of the broken air. There were lots of people – some with swords and some with arrows. There was another sound, soft and pretty, of someone throwing fireballs.

Varian scowled at a shadow and tried to throw a fireball like the pretty song did. It fizzled and crackled like lightning from a storm. Dragons did not throw lightning! Though if they did that would be really cool. Maybe he would be a lightning dragon.

The shadow he had hit started coming towards him. Varian jumped and ran away. He looked over his shoulder and the shadow had a lot of arrows sticking out of it. Shadows didn’t like arrows.

“Quickly!” someone yelled. “Before more come through!” Rough hands picked Varian up and held him towards the broken air. Varian threw up his hands to defend himself. His hand went from aching to burning to singing – his hand was singing at the broken air! It shot a big green line at the broken air! Everything crackled and warped and the songs fought, his hand-song and the air-song. His hand song won. The air cracked and closed with a snap.

Varian wasn’t sure if he should cheer. He felt like he wanted to cry. The hands that were holding him turned him around. Varian stared. It was an elf! He had big ears, like Varian! And no hair! Varian had lots of hair. It got in his eyes.

“It seems you hold the key to our salvation,” Elf said. He was quiet, and sounded sad.

“You’re an elf!” Varian told him, tugging at one of his ears.

“I am,” he said.

“I’m an elf!” Varian tugged at one of his own ears. “Except sometimes I’m a dragon. I’m a dragon elf! Like you! We both shoot fireballs, WHAM!”

“Indeed,” Elf said. “What is your name, da’len?”

“I’m Varian. Who are you?”

“My name is Solas.” He smiled, but it was still sad. “I am glad to see you wake.”

“You were sleeping for a long time, kid.” This was another voice. Varian looked down. And down.

He wiggled until Solas put him on the ground. The other voice was short, like him! Not an elf. His ears were round. He had a really really really big crossbow. His shirt was open. Wouldn’t that be cold?

“You’re little!” Varian told the person, delighted.

“I’m Varric, and I’m normal sized,” the person corrected. “For a dwarf. You’re the one who is very small. Especially if you are a dragon.” Varric smiled. It was a nice smile. It reached his eyes.

“I’m a big, big dragon!” Varian protested. “I breathe fire!”

“How old are you, Varian?” Solas knelt down in front of him.

Varian scowled. How old were dragons? Very old. “Twenty!” he guessed. What was a bigger number than twenty? “No, fifty-five. No, one hundred!” Varian bounced on his toes. “No, one hundred and twenty and fifty-five!”

“Might I suggest we move into the forward camp?” Cassandra said dryly.

“Of course.” Solas picked Varian up without asking. Varian wiggled in protest, but Solas didn’t let go. He stopped wiggling. He was a little tired. And Solas was wearing a nice soft coat. It was softer than Cassandra’s armor.

He must have fallen asleep because when he woke up, there were soldiers everywhere! They were running and screaming and fighting the shadows. Up in front, the air was broken again. It hurt Varian’s head. He wished it would stop doing that.

Solas was still holding him with one arm. He had a staff in the other. It was singing, shooting lightning at the shadows. It was pretty.

Varian’s hand was aching again. He wanted it to fix the broken air, but there were too many shadows. The shadows sang their own, bad song. It got in the way. When the last shadow was frizzled into lightning, he pushed his hand at the broken air and it thrummed a clean, pure note – just like before! The air closed with a relieved snap. It was better now.

“I did it!” Varian shouted. “Yeah, yeah! Hooray! Take that, stupid!”

“You wake.” Solas shifted, putting his staff on his back so he could hold Varian with both arms. “How do you feel?”

Varian scowled at Solas – he was a _dragon_ he was _fine –_ but then the big hole in the sky crashed again and the pain went all the way up his arm and into his chest and he was really not fine.

Solas’ lips made a thin line. There wasn’t anything happy in his eyes. He started walking really fast. Cassandra and Varric were there too.

“Where are we going?” Varian asked when the pain subsided.

“We are going to the Breach,” Cassandra said grimly.

“I hypothesize that the mark on your hand will be able to stabilize it,” Solas said.

Varian wrinkled his nose, thinking. “I can fix the Wrong?”

“That is my sincere hope,” Solas said.

Varian remembered what Cassandra said earlier, to the Hood Lady. “Am I dying?”

Solas’ steps faltered. He looked really sad. “Yes.”

“Oh.” Varian thought again. “If I fix the sky, am I still going to die?”

“No, kid. You’re a dragon! You’re going to be just fine,” Varric reassured him.

Varian scowled at the dwarf, then looked at Cassandra. Her eyes answered his question.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure that does not happen.” Varian looked back to Solas. The other elf had dark blue eyes, looking into his own. Like a promise, an important promise.

“Okay,” Varian said softly. “Down, please.” Solas put him down. Varian took his hand, thinking. Solas seemed like he would try. Most grown-ups didn’t mean it when they promised.

Oh well. If he died, he would see Mamae again. That would be nice.

They kept walking, getting closer to the Wrong in the sky. Varian didn’t look at it anymore. It made him feel dizzy. Soon the snow turned to ash. It was hot and slippery under his toes. There were people in the ash who were very, very dead. They looked like they were still screaming.

Varian wondered if he would look like that when he was dead. He hoped not.

There was a muttering song in the air, dark and low and in his stomach. It made his mouth taste like blood. He was glad he didn’t have anything to eat, or it would come back up again. Varian decided he hated the song. It made him feel very sick.

“Red lyrium.” Varric said it like it was a bad word. Varian stayed as far from it as he could. Crystals shouldn’t sing like that. Songs shouldn’t make you sick.

The air smelled like it had burned. It was a sweet, awful smell. The ground kept sloping down. Then a big, horrible, rumbling voice said something mean. It made Cassandra gasp. Then there was a woman’s voice saying “Someone! Help me!” and a small voice that yelled “Stop it!”

“That’s Varian’s voice,” Cassandra said softly. “And Divine Justinia’s.”

“Echoes of what happened in the moments before the explosion,” Solas explained. Varian looked around. If there was an explosion, that explained all the ash and the black and the smell. Whoever made it explode was gonna be in biiiiig trouble when Cassandra caught them. He could tell.

Then they were right under the Wrong in the sky, and the air was hurting in the biggest, most awful way Varian had ever seen. The broken sound was muffled.

“The rift is closed, but not sealed,” Solas explained. “I believe with the power of the mark we can open it and seal it properly. But whatever is on the other side will have a chance to come through.”

“That means demons!” Cassandra yelled. The soldiers that were with them took out their swords and arrows. Cassandra drew her own sword. Varric got out his big crossbow. “Is there any way Varian can open it from a distance?”

“No,” Solas said. He sounded angry. “And he will have to be close in order to seal it again.”

“Stay at a distance, stay defensive, keep him safe,” Cassandra ordered Solas. Solas stiffened, but then he nodded.

Solas knelt down in front of Varian. “Varian. I need you to focus on the rift. Imagine opening it, like a door.”

Varian focused, but the rift wasn’t a door. It was a sound. An awful, broken sound. Did Solas not hear it? Maybe if it was louder. Varian concentrated, trying to make the sound louder, and his hand shot out green lightning into the broken part of the sky. It roared, loud enough that even the rocks heard it.

Then the biggest shadow that Varian had ever seen in his life came through.

It was singing along with the rift, and it was awful. It wrapped the song around itself, humming happily. As long as it did that, Cassandra’s sword couldn’t hit it. Varric’s arrows did nothing. Even Solas’ fireballs skittered off to the side.

Varian yelled at the broken part of the sky until the sky changed a note. Now the shadow wasn’t humming with the rift anymore. Cassandra and Varric and Solas and the soldiers could hurt it. Varian tried to throw a fireball too, but he just made a few little ice crystals come out of the air.

Solas was keeping a barrier around them, Varian at his feet. It felt like a soft, warm blanket. Varian liked it. He liked it even better when little shadows spat out of the rift and started screeching and screaming at him. One clawed through the barrier and managed to scratch him on the cheek. Varian yelled at it, furious and terrified, and froze it into a solid block of ice. Solas hit it with his staff and it shattered.

Varian stomped on all of the pieces.

They fought the big shadow for one hundred thousand million days. It had lightning ropes and big awful claws and tiny eyes that were all mean. Varian kept trying to throw fireballs, but there were dark spots growing behind his eyes. He was sooooooo tired.

The big shadow staggered, fell to the ground, and vanished back into the air. Now the broken sound was clear, uncluttered. Varian planted his feet in the shifting ash and raised his hand. It sang like a crystal, but all he could see was white. He struggled to stay upright, felt Solas’ touch his shoulders and heard the loud crack of the air sealing back together. It wasn’t singing the broken song anymore.

Varian felt his knees give out and let the brightness take him. He was unconscious before Solas stopped his fall.


End file.
